Drinking tea in paper cups not safe, finds IIT-Kgp study

Kolkata: Is the paper cup you sip your chai from safe? No, says a study conducted by a group of researchers at

IIT-Kharagpur

. The study — carried out recently by civil engineering teacher Sudha Goel and environmental engineering and management research scholars Ved Prakash Ranjan and Anuja Joseph — confirms contamination of any hot beverage served in disposable paper cups owing to disintegration of microplastic and other hazardous materials that line these cups.

Paper cups are usually lined by a thin layer of “hydrophobic film”, which is made of mostly plastic (polyethylene) and sometimes co-polymers to keep the liquid from seeping out. This microplastic layer can disintegrate within 15 minutes as a reaction to just hot water, the researchers say. Microplastic may carry unhealthy ions and toxic heavy metals like palladium, chromium and cadmium.

“According to our study, 25,000 micron-sized (10µm to 1,000µm) microplastic particles are released into 100ml of hot liquid (85°C-90°C) for 15 minutes. Thus, an average person drinking three regular cups of tea or coffee daily ingests 75,000 tiny microplastic particles that are invisible to the naked eye,” Goel said.

Full report on www.toi.in


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